


First date Fumble

by Trainwreckweather



Category: The X-Files
Genre: Episode: s06e19 The Unnatural, F/M, Ficlet, Fluff, Light Angst, MSR
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-23
Updated: 2019-02-23
Packaged: 2019-11-04 07:54:11
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 977
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17894489
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Trainwreckweather/pseuds/Trainwreckweather
Summary: Short post episode for The Unnatural, Answer for Peacenik0's prompt on Tumblr- msr first date





	First date Fumble

**Author's Note:**

> I wrote a little thing and I don't really like it but I don't hate it either so here I guess.

She messed up and she knew it.

Last week on this day, it was like walking on air she felt so good. Flirting in the morning had turned into baseball at night, a private lesson from none other than Fox Mantle. A private lesson she didn’t need growing up with brothers and surrounded by America’s most patriotic, but she let him think otherwise.

The military loved baseball. Everyone loved baseball. She loved it even more now.

She would listen to him teach her the fundamentals of anything, _hips before hands, Scully,_ as long as he kept touching her like that. Leaning into her like that. Breaths slightly labored and she had a feeling it had more to do with just the physical exertion of smacking leather into the stars.

Afterwards, when they were alone, they walked with hips bumping, laughing, talking about nothing. And it was everything. Scully came to the sudden realization that this was a date, or at least it felt like one.

And when he had her pinned against her car with his warmth and his smell and his smile, his eyes spoke of something different, more intimate, and she realized this _was_ a date.

Their first date.

He confirmed it with a too serious look and a slow, slow advance of his lips towards hers. And god it was going to happen and god it was too much so suddenly.

She turned at the very last second and his target was missed, the contrast of budding stubble and hot mouth hitting her cheek chastely, too quickly. She felt her stomach drop in shame. She wanted this, _they deserved this,_ why can’t she allow this?

He laughed off his embarrassment, though it was clearly written all over his pink face and in his averted eyes. She pretended for his sake that he meant to swoop in for a friendly kiss, and bid him goodnight, a lump forming in her throat as she watched him go before clambering into her own vehicle.

Scully hurt him. And she hurt herself.

She fucked up.

Out of the two of them, an outsider would easily say it was Spooky Mulder who held all the cards on interpersonal dysfunction. But it was her. It was always her.

As a child she had a close bond with her father, closer than the rest of her siblings she thought. So every time he went off to sea it threatened to destroy her. Sure, she put on a brave face, did well in school and at home as to not upset the balance of things. She wanted Ahab to be proud of her, always.

But alone, she would suffer from it terribly, cry herself to sleep thinking he wasn’t going to come back to her, thinking that eventually, everyone she loved would be gone forever, and after some time she stopped getting so attached to anyone.

By the time she was in college she was an expert in being the one who loved less. When you loved less, it hurt less when things fell apart.

But she didn’t- love less that is. Not Mulder. She loved Mulder with all of her heart. She didn’t know how that came to be but it happened, and denying it by dodging kisses wasn’t going to solve anything.

Mulder loved her and they both knew Demerol wasn’t to blame for him saying so.

He wanted more. He was ready for more and that night at home base he tried to show her. So what did she do? Took the cowards way. She ran from it knowing that it wouldn’t make any difference to her undeniable feelings. Knowing it would only make things worse.

The work week after had been nearly unbearable, that equilibrium she’s striven to keep in life severely thrown off, tossing them both without mercy into a suffocating environment of _what now?_ Mulder would barely look at her, barely speak to her outside of professional observations. After all they had been through, would one awkward encounter destroy them? It wasn’t likely, not unless…

Not unless Mulder thought she really didn’t love him. Not unless he truly thought he’d made a miscalculation somewhere down the line and believed that they were never going to happen. If that was the case, a botched kiss and a bruised ego wasn’t what he was suffering from.

It was heartbreak.

She was ready now. The fact she cried the whole way home from the field should have clued her in. There would be no more running from this.

She would fix it. She had to fix this.

*****

“I want to try again,” she says as soon as he opens his door to her, before he has any chance to form some excuse to avoid her unannounced presence.

She’s been fidgeting, her nerves threatening to split her apart at the seams and send her every which way, but now that he is in front of her, all mussed up hair and squinty eyes, she’s frozen stock still, holding her breath.

“Scully, what-” But that is enough to spring her into action. She can’t take any conversation right now, isn’t sure if she could articulate what she’s feeling with words.

And if she doesn’t do this now, she’ll lose her nerve. So she practically jumps into his arms, grabbing onto his face with both hands and kissing him, _hard._ Enough to leave her mark.

_You are mine Fox Mulder. Don’t you ever doubt it._

It takes a too long moment that has her heart exploding in nervous _what if’s,_ but then he is kissing her back, clutching onto her waist and pulling her up and impossibly closer to him, opening his mouth to her and _that’s it, that’s what I came here for. This is what I’ve been missing_.

They were going to be alright. She would make sure of it.

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading! :D


End file.
